Clones in Science Fiction

So, here it is. Here’s what I have been doing over the last few months.

Painting.

This painting shows Ottercrest, Oregon, where a good friend has a condo and invites us out from time to time. I painted from a photograph we took, and my talented husband jumped in and crafted the frame. It was our thanks for her generosity, which provided wonderful memories.

This happened because after I finished writing the Terran Trilogy, my muse packed her bags and waved a cheery goodbye as I stared at a blank white page that morphed into a canvas. So I picked up a paintbrush instead of my iPad.

But I didn’t give up on reading science fiction. A lot of my books I get from websites such as Bookbub, Book Barbarian, and Freebooksy. You can get daily e-mails that select for your favorite genre. The prices are good and every day there’s something new to choose from.

…Which reminds me that my novel, Someone’s Clone will be showcased on Freebooksy tomorrow, June 4th. It fits into the Alysian Universe Series, but can stand on its own. The story is about a boy who goes on a search for his identity when he discovers that he is not who he thought he was. There’s time travel, invading aliens, augmented humans fighting to protect their planet, artificial intelligence, and secret clones… plus more.

Speaking of science fiction, I have been spending a lot of time watching Youtube lately. We are big Tesla fans and own an X and S. While watching a podcast with Elon Musk, we discovered Lex Fridman, a Russian-American computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher who is also a professor at MIT. He interviews amazing guests and they frequently discuss deep space, colonization, artificial intelligence, the existence of aliens, or not, and many topics that touch future science ideas. The podcasts sometimes run several hours, but the time goes by fast. At the end, he often asks his guests what advice would they give young people trying to get a start in life and frequently closes by asking what they think is the meaning of life.

Their answers are fascinating.

The other night I watched his interview with science fiction author Neal Stephenson. I didn’t realize that Neal was the first employee at Jeff Bozo’s Blue Origin company. He has deep knowledge of space travel and the hurdles we face in becoming interplanetary.

Stephenson mention his new book, Termination Shock, which is about a Texas billionaire who decides to combat climate change by using his own resources. (sound familiar?) Complications develop.

Welcome to politics

Several years ago I did a review in one of my blogs on his book DODO. I was surprised at how much I liked it.

After the interview, I downloaded a sample of SevenEves and decided to read the rest of the book. For some reason, I thought it had clones in it.

Then I noticed that there are 880 pages in the paperback and remembered how long his books often run. I checked the reviews. They are dicey. However, it involves humans on spaceships, and he is well qualified to write about that. I’ll give it a try and let you know what I think.

PS… When asked what his favorite science fiction book was, Stephenson said, “Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit, Will Travel”

What is your favorite science fiction read?

And don’t forget to download Someone’s Clone for free. You’ll find lots of action with fun future science.

Enjoy life.